Movement 124

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quicklire gnestions What are you reading at the moment? Michael Palin, Full Circle.... My wife bought me a set of the Michael Palin books and l'm just reading them, and finding them so enchanting. On a more serious level, I have just finished a classic SCMtype book which I recommend to all your readers: What the Bible Really Teaches by Keith Ward. What's yogr favourite film? The Shawshank Redemption. Absolutely no question. Not just because l'm a prison person, but for that wonderful Mozart movement through the loudspeakers which just transforms the prison. lt makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. How do you relax? The great new interest in my life is gardening. At the moment l'm spending quite a bit of time watching the World Cup, though I wouldn't call that relaxing. What do you like most about yourself? I think l'm very patient. I think l'm patient with other people, I think l'm patient with myself. ls there anything you dislike about yourself? I think l'm too patient. l'm certainly too patient with the wrongs and injustices of the world. And perhaps a little too patient with myself. What's your favourite word? Can I give you two? When I was Moderator, the theme I had was that I wanted a passionate church and a gentle Scotland. lf you could be someone else, who would it be? When they asked Churchillthat, he said,'Mrs Churchill's second husband'. I would like to be Mrs McLellan's second husband. The living person I admire most is Jean Vanier, the founder of the llArche communities. He has combined intellectual power with great human tenderness in a way I find very moving. What are you scared of? l'm scared of people. I find some people quite intimidating. l'm scared of things that might happen to my sons even though they're now grown up. l'm scared of a church which no longer is able to capture the excitement and liveliness and joy which is Cod and Christian worshiP. What do you never miss on TV? I never miss Scotland football victories. There are very few. What music do you listen to? I listen to a lot of Mozart, and I listen to - this'll tell you my age - the Beatles. Joan Baez speaks to me because l'm a child of the sixties, in a way that others don't, and l've a particular affection for the Scottish traditional music of a fiddler and an accordion player called Ally Bain and Phil Cunningham. Do you have any pet hates? l'm ashamed of this, but I hate bad grammar and bad spelling. That's a sign of a small mind in me, but that's the way I am. 'l do not recoEfnise the God of ri$htwin$ ideolo$ues in the United States' - perhaps even more than they record Jesus having concerns about people going to church.' All the same, he has major concerns about the links which are forming in the US between the state and fundamentalist Christianity: 'l do not recognise the God of rightwing ideologues in the United States, who is a Cod - as far as I can see - of vengeance, and a Cod of exclusiveness and of the particular rights of our particular people and our particular way of life. Now when I say I do not recognise that Cod, of course I recognise that there are pages in the Bible that represent that Cod. But I do not recognise that Cod in the face of Jesus Christ.' He adds a challenge: 'l think the courage of most of the mainstream Christian denominations in the United States in standing out against the ideology of the far religious right has not been sufficiently recognised here. The responsibility of churches here to support the mainstream churches in the US, I think, hasn't sufficiently been recognised.' We talk about the need for the church in general to speak out more for peace and .iustice: 'Protestantism should be born in protest... l'm proud of that sense that the demand for the end of abuses of the justice of Cod and the peace of Cod should be part of the living out of the gospel. 'When I came into this job, I expected that regularly I would get phone calls and letters saying, "Because l'm a Christian person, I care about the conditions in our prisons and I wish they were better'" Not a squeak. l'm recognising how timid our churches are in terms of shouting louder and banging at the doors - not for the rights of the churches, but for the rights of the weakest and the most oppressed children of God.' As a church leader, he spoke about the need for the church to reconnect with modern society. 'Listening to the world is a primary role of the church. Listening and loving go hand in hand together - you don't love people you don't listen to.' Finally, his message for the SCM of today: 'Firstly, the theology of the church should not belong to its ordained ministers. You do not need a degree in theology to think theologically. Secondly, increasingly, the defence of liberal theology in our churches belongs to old people. lt was the opposite when I was in the SCM: old people were conservative and most young people were liberal. So it's important not just that the church should treasure the SCM, but also that the SCM should flex its muscles and decide that numbers are not important - what's important is the truth, and having the courage to shout perhaps a little louder. Thirdly, the SCM should be, of all groups around the Christian faith, the best at listening to the world. SCM members will find themselves confronted with the caricatures of religion which unbelievers in the university will have. Somehow, for them to hear behind that caricature the actual concerns of unbelieving students is such an important ear for the church, and the church needs to hear it as welli O Liam Purcell is editor of movement. 1 ' ql T I l I L2 movement
dippin$ toes in the sea of laith a short introduction to christianity's nonrealist tradition I 1 I I The story is told of an Indian doctor whose London surgery was decorated with colourful Hindu gods. One of his English patients pointed at Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, and asked the doctor, 'Do you really believe in this strange deity?'The doctor answered, 'l sincerely believe in every attribute of Ganesh - except his existence!' Our doctor was a theological nonrealist. That is to say, he understood Ganesh not as a 'real' living being, spirit, or super-intelligence, but as a symbol of wisdom, good-living and peace. For him, the god Canesh was not merely the teacher of these virtues, he was these virtues. Where wisdom, goodness and peace flourished, there was Canesh. The worship of Ganesh was the practice of what Canesh was held to stand for. This kind of nonrealism is sometimes called nontheism. Both 'nons' are a kind of protest against naive literalism. They deny the actual objective existence of 'real' gods, while affirming the virtues that the gods (in Hinduism) or Cod (in the Christian, Jewish and lslamic traditions) are believed to stand for. Both terms define a way of understanding God that bypasses the supernatural and mythical framework in which religion has traditionally been understood. There is nothing new about nonrealism, even within Christianity. The writer of the first epistle of John puts it plainly in chapter 4 verse B: 'He that loveth not, knoweth not Cod; for God is love'; and again in verse 16: 'Cod is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and Cod in him'. The 17th-century 'True Leveller' (and later Quaker) Gerrard Winstanley took up the theme. 'ln the beginning of time, the spirit of universal love appeared.,. Love is the Word'. To worship God was to live a life of love and sweet reason - and living it rather than merely saying it was what mattered, since'action is the life of all'. A century later William Blake spelled it out in his poem 'The Divine lmage'. When we pray, he says, we pray 'to rhercy, pity, peace and love', because 'mercy, pity, peace and love is Cod'. And it is mercy, pity, peace and love that answers back! Half a century after Blake, the theologians began to catch up with the poets. Ludwig Feuerbach's hugely influential book Ihe Essence of Christianity (1841) proposed that love 'is God himself, and apart from it there is no Cod'. When he was denounced as an atheist (as nontheists often are, by literalists), Feuerbach replied that the true atheist was not someone who denied a personal or objective God, but one who denied what the word Cod symbolised. Conversely, the true believer was not one who affirmed Cod's existence but one who dared to live out compassion in action as the essence of the Cod metaphor. the true believer is not one who affirms God's existence but one who dares to live out compassion Since the 1980s the Anglican theologian Don Cupitt has been developing this tradition in a series of books, beginning with Taking Leave of Cod and The Sea o{ Faith. IHis latest book is reviewed in our media section on page 2B.l These inspired the formation of a Sea of Faith Network which publishes a bi-monthly magazine, Sofra, runs regular conferences, and has several regional groups. There are also SoF networks in Australia and New Zealand, and members around the world. Contrary to popular assumptions, Cupitt is not the 'leader' of SoF. Many SoF members have opted to remain within the church, reluctant to leave it in the hands of traditionalists. Some hang on by their fingernails. Others have taken leave not only of a 'real' God but also of his church, choosing to work for the republic of heaven rather than the kingdom. ln a republic, the responsibility is ours alone. Like many UK religious organisations, SoF is too white, too middle-class and too late-middle-aged. lt needs an injection of youthful energy and iconoclasm. lt needs or even movement. lt is open to all who movement - sympathise with its 'mission statement': 'to explore and promote religious faith as a human creation'. The bottom line is that 21st century religion doesn't have to stick with supernaturalism and the spirit of Christianity past. lf we truly care for each other we dwell in Cod and Cod dwells in us - because that's what God is, and that's what it is to be fully human. I want to know more? The .Sca r,/ Fa ith David Boulton is a former editor of the SoF magazine. A Quaker and a humanist, his latest books are The Trouble with Cod and Codless for Cod's Sake, available from the Quaker Bookshop, Euston Road, London NWI 2Bl. To learn more, go to www.sofn.org.uk or contact the Network Secretary, Cospel Hill Cottage, Chapel Lane, Whitfield, Brackley NN13 5TF. Cupitt's Sea of Faith is still available, and the Network has published an introductory pamphlet, A Reasonable Faith. A more recent book is Trevor Creenfield's An lntroduction to RadicalTheology. See the movement section at www. movement.org. u k for some hymns which are based on nonrealist theology. movement 13
Page 1 and 2: t. ,.termly maElazine of the studen
Page 3 and 4: editorial 'Value' is a loaded term
Page 5 and 6: scm glrassroots reporl: peak retrea
Page 7 and 8: i gt?#L?g#ffGam working, to set aII
Page 9 and 10: steve collins on alternative worshi
Page 11: I So, how would he like to see thin
Page 15 and 16: i bursaries is complex and many of
Page 17 and 18: a resurgence? Signs of hope for stu
Page 19 and 20: apply. Financial help can sometimes
Page 21 and 22: ties and binds principalities, powe
Page 23 and 24: wood ingham's tales from the world
Page 25 and 26: who were inspired by self-governing
Page 27 and 28: writing about culture (popular and
Page 29 and 30: the latest series of the a0prentice
Page 31 and 32: Da Vinci consPiracY? Well, this sum

Movement 124

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